Far From Home
by Ardianna Keeper
Summary: It was a simple job. In and out, leave no survivors. Unfortunately for Lirael, a certain mad god was in a foul mood. Now the world she knew is gone. Replaced with a new world where metal spouts fire, and elves are nonexistent. This worlds name? Earth.
1. Chapter 1

Far From Home

Part One

Chapter One

Fog rolled in over Riften as snow fell in thick drifts over the wooden water city, the docks were locked in ice. No one but the beggars and guards remained out doors all others hid in there homes or the local tavern. Freezing all trade in the usually busy city, the guard changed the old heading in to thaw their frozen bodies. The new stood tall and proud in the frosted air, nursing tankards of sweet honey mead.

Huddled in the alcove of a warm, loud tavern, huddled a small bundle curled tightly up making itself so small that the loud Nords didn't notice her as they kicked up melted foul snow on her grey fur cloak.

Lirael pulled her ratty fur cloak tighter around her and snuggled into the wet wood wall. She was hiding in the door way of the Bee and Bards back door, occasionally a patron would open the door and she would get a face full of warm air and soft light. All to soon the door would be shut and her world would descend back into darkness.

She shivered and coughed quietly into her arm and sniffed. The wind gusted and sent a cruel chill deep into her bones, she coughed again harder and harder. She caught the silhouette of a guard and covered her mouth with a frozen hand, stiffing her hacking coughs. She held her breath and prayed very hard to Azura, prayed with all her might that the guard wouldn't see her. She squeezed her soft red eyes shut, hopping that they wouldn't catch the guards torches light.

She ducked her head down little her long lank black hair cover her face, she did everything she could think of it make her be unseen.

She listened with dread as the guards even steps grew closure, snow crunching under his heels. The steps stopped and the frozen wind gusted blowing his torch out. Lirael waited as silent as a corpse, the guard grumbled some unknown complaint and walked off again.

The tiny Dunmer exhaled and watched her breath turn to a cold and float away. She rested her frost bitten cheek against the tavern wall, wishing against reality that the heat would reach her.

The taverns door flew open and two larger burly Nords stepped out into the fringed air. Their drunken speech was near impossible to make out, common tongue still sounded so strange her her ears. She spoke the language of the Daedra as taught by her tribe, devout worshippers of Azura. She could speak Common well enough to communicate but not well enough to speak without a heavy accent. The Nords thick accent drunken speech was to much for her, it sounded like to blades grinding against each other.

She turned her face back to the wall, blinking snow from her eyelashes.

"Begone, you drunken louts!" A thick Argonian voice came from the tavern and he pushed the pair out into the street.

Lirael lifted her face and smiled vacantly as the warm air stroked her cheeks. The two drunks collided with the wall of the opposite shop in the narrow ally. The Argonian glanced around, Lirael froze as his gaze landed on her.

He growled "Begone!" He hit her square in the face with his broom, she tumbled back with the blow. Normally such a blow would not effect a full grown dark elf, but against Lirael's thin malnourished form, it sent her sprawling back into the drift.

"Get! Find some other place to squat!"

Lirael rolled onto her front and pushed herself up, pushing her frozen hair out of her face.

The drunk Nords shouted something to each other and the next moment the largest and drunkest of the two kicked her, slamming his heavy boot into her chest knocking the air out of her lungs.

She fell back with a cry and curled up, protecting her head with her hands as the two drunkards took out their frustrations on her. After what felt like hours they stopped as the cold got to them and they went home.

Lirael slowly uncurled her muscles slow and stiff as she reached down and pulled a small pouch from her breast brand. She rolled it between her hands, no holes. She crawled towards the tavern wall and pulled herself up the wall. She coughed harshly as her wet cloak hung heavily against her fragile frame. She pushed herself up of the wall and stumbled down the alley, she drifted down through the market and down to the lower level the city.

She carefully eased her way down the ice coated steps, just as she reached the last one the ice sheet tricked her and she slipped and feel her head crashing against the stair. Her vision blurred and she rolled forward off the stair, she cried silently for a moment tears freezing on her face before stumbling over the ice board. No one came down here if they could, it was only the poor that ended up down here. The wealthy would live above and never look down as they threw there waste down into the channel. She walked to the even end of the boardwalk and reached out to the frozen grate, frosted iron meant her cold fingers. She pulled out her lock picks from her waist band and set them in the lock, she closed her eyes and let her hands go down a familiar track.

She had picked this lock a thousand times, the guards kept locking it and she kept unlocking it. Five seconds later the familiar click of the frozen lock, she returned her picks to her waist and reefed they iron grate open. She groaned as she pulled the grate open, it creaked and moaned as she pulled on its frosted hinges. She eased herself around the corner of the grate and slipped finally to the other side and released the grate and winced as it clanged back to its lock. She slipped down to the Rat Way door and pulled it open and stepped into the dark.

She walked slowly down the foul wall to the two thugs who's names escaped her at the moment they sat on there bed rolls roasting a Skeever over sticks. The thinner of the two glanced up at her and pointed down the hall, she stumbled past them and deeper into the maze. As she pushed open the last door to the Ragged Flaggen she braced herself against the door and coughed again, eventually she walked around the secondary main drainage for the sewers. Wove her way by the dingy tables that made up the Flaggen, then finally up the storage porch.

She walked around the mostly empty tables and up to Tonilia's favourite spot.

"I thought I heard you hacking Lirael."

"Sssorry Toni." Lirael's voice cracked.

"By the Shadows you sound like hell." Tonilia glared at the ratty Dark elf.

"Outside is very cold." Lirael shorten her words to fit the common tongue.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Your a fool for going out in it, you can't pick pockets with your fingers frozen off."

Lirael pulled her coin pouch out and poked it open and pulled a single sapphire out. "This good?" She turned the jewel over in her palm, its deep blue standing out on her ashen skin.

Tonilia picked out and plucked the sapphire from her palm. "One-fifty."

"Good." Lirael cupped her hands.

Tonilia grumbled and pulled out her own fat coin purse and counted out the coins and set them in Lirael's palms.

"Thank you." Lirael poured the coins into her pouch and smiled faintly at the new weight.

"What are you saving for Lirael?" Tonilia glared at the sickly elf. "You'll be dead before you get there."

"For a ladohter time."

"By the Divines, you have to work on your accent. I get you were never taught the common but that was horrid."

"Sssorry." she dipped her head.

"What later time?"

"Oh, uh, wrong wordoht?" She pushed her poach back away. "I do not know the wordoht for it."

Tonilia sighed and watched her for a long moment. "Go dry out, I can't have my best pick pocket dieing of rot lung."

Lirael smiled and walked over to the end of the porch and pulled the ragged cloak from her and shook it over the drain, she laid it over the edge and pulled her fingers through the fur. If it hadn't pulled at her cheeks she would have frowned at the bare patches. The thought of getting a new one was out of the question and this one was on its last legs.

She pulled it back and walked over across from the face sculpture and sat down with a quiet thud and rested her head on a crate and willed herself to a wet, cold, nap.

* * *

Lirael jointed awake jumping in place.

"About time you showed your frost bitten, ash coloured face down here. I was being to think I'd find you dead in an ally any day now." A voice with a great likeness to honey walked up the planks and knelled before her.

Lirael groaned and let her head fall back against the crate, her eyes cracked open as she blinked till the red headed Nord came into focus. His black armour stood out on his dirty plain skin, his hard jaw and straight nose greeted her foggy vision. An agile, strong hand shot out and grabbed her chin and pulled her forward.

"Tonilia was right you look like death warmed over lass." His smooth voice stroked her ears, his other hand pulled hers forward and she found a heavy hot bowl in her hands. "I've offered you a place in the Guild three times now, your a great pick pocket. You could go far here."

Lirael lifted the bowl to her chest and spooned some of the warm liquid into her mouth, her eyes shot wide. "Ash yam?"

"And horker." Brynjolf smiled.

She smiled slightly and winced as it pulled at her cheeks. "Yeah I know you miss your homelands food."

"You are trying to bribe me?" she almost giggled.

"Can't fault a guy for trying." He flashed a smirk.

"I am not join Bryn." she spooned a piece of horker into her mouth and chewed.

"Why lass? Your killing yourself and Toni is right, I'm not willing to lose you to the cold at the rate your going you'll be dead before spring."

"I steal to keep my stomach from meedoht my spine, I do not wandoht to do it forever."

Brynjolf sighed and watched her for a moment and pulled a balm out of a pouch on his hip and smeared the pinkish paste over her cheeks and watched her wince.

Lirael would feel heat in her cheeks as well as a pleasant numbing. "So what do you want to do? Tonilia said that you haven't spent a coin since she last saw you."

Lirael gazed down at the fast emptying bowl.

"Lass." His tone said it all, not answering was not an option.

"I wandoht to be a Compainion. I have been saving for armour and weapons, I haves some training with katanas, nodachi and bows, but I losdoht mine when I came heres."

"A Compainion." Brynjolf took a moment to gather his jaw up off the floor. "Lass, I don't mean to speak ill of you but your in no shape to be a warrior. Your a pickpocket a thief."

"Not choice."

"Hey you said your Ts right." Brynjolf smiled reflexivity at the improvement.

Lirael's thin lips turned up slightly.

"Kid, you need to take care of yourself or your not going to make it to Whiterun. Its a long walk, shorter if you go by carriage, but in your position I don't think you can afford it." He reached out and pulled the coins from under her shirt and weighed it in his hand. "You could probably get some bottom of the rung used leather, won't be pretty but will get you on your feet, a Nodachi you said?"

Lirael nodded and focused on keeping the stew down, her stomach was rebelling at the odd feeling of being full and threatening to make her heave. Brynjolf must of seem it in her face and pulled a blue flower from another pouch. "Chew this. Nodachi?" he asked again.

She took the flower and smiled at the sweet taste and nodded.

"Those are those things that are from Morrowind? Largely hard to find but even harder to use, most just swing them like a Great sword and end up snapping them. Long thin, two handed?"

Lirael nodded again, chewing the flower more, after half a year in Skyrim she just found gesturing or nodding her head got her point across better then, trying to speak.

"You sure you can handle that?"

She nodded again.

"And the other." He snapped his fingers trying to remember the word.

"Katana." she supplied.

"Katana and thats?"

"Same as kodachi budoht one handed."

"Ah."

They stared at each other for a long moment and she swallowed the flower.

Brynjolf sighed. "You're going to leave no matter what I do, aren't you?"

Lirael nodded. "If needed fenCess is in Meadery outside of cidy."

"So you've basicly given the me the option, help you move on, or watch you die."

"I didn'd know you cared." she said softly.

"How about a deal. I help you get on your feet and you when I need it owe me a favour." Brynjolf said smoothly. "Sound good lass?"

Lirael nodded warily. "Aye."

"Someone has been hanging around the pirates."Brynjolf joked and offered his hand. "Then its a deal."

Lirael shook his hand, her tiny one fitting snugly in his.

"Lovely, try to get more sleep I'll be back in a few."

Lirael nodded and snuggled back into her corner and through many months of practice ignored the hustle and bustle of a thriving Guild.

"Come on Lass wake up, the storm has cleared and you have a long walk ahead of you." a firm hand shook her.

Her eyes snapped open and she threw a punch.

"Ow! Ohy!"

The sleep deprived elves eyes focused. "Oh sssorry!" she reached forward and healing leaped from her finger tips.

"Enough Lass I got everything you need." Brynjolf slung a heavy looking black fur pack down from his shoulder and set down a long thin bundle.

Lirael's face lite up at the sight.

Brynjolf pulled the sack open and pulled out a number of brown furs. "Okay Lass this," he held a hood with made to fall over her shoulders with a long tail on one side. "Is a Mantle, it goes over your cloak and is another layer that you can have a scarf under, which is this." He held up a heavy long brown fur to skin. "I don't really expect an Easterner to know all this. These are fur lined gloves they go under your gauntlets which are here." He held up to worn leather gauntlets that looked like they had seem better days. "This tunic goes under your armour and will keep the cold away same with the leggings. I got a tent and bed roll to go with your backpack as well as enough provisions for the two day trip. I assume you know how to pitch a tent?"

"Yess."

"Good that is all the clothes. Now," Brynjolf smiled and picked up the bundle, the leather cracked in complaint when he pulled it away. "There only steel, but they are the best I could get with what I had left of your gold."

Lirael stumbled to her feet and pulled the long kodachi from it's sheath and smiled. The blade was almost as long as she was tall, she stance changed unconsciously, hands moved to grip the blade loosely. Unlike when welding a Great Sword you wrapped your hands around it for greatest strength, with a kodachi, the blade was far thinner and lighter, one needed the strength to control the blade, but the speed to wield it. Lirael settled into an Akaviri stance and swung the blade down from the right up to the left, arms bent and loose, the blade sung in the air and she grinned for the first time since arriving in Riften she sharply brought it down to her right breast the bladed pointed out. Loosing herself for a moment she swept through the first moves of her first form.

Brynjolf watched a little in awe as the long large blade swept through the air so fast it left a trail in the light, being the home bred Nord he had never seem just a large blade moved so elegantly.

She settled back to a familiar sword to her chest pointed up stance as she finished her form. Breathlessly. "It's perfect." Her chest heaved with the new strain of the blade.

"So I see, the sheath is a one sided quick release. So you don't have to worry about cutting yourself on it but can still pull it out at a moments notice. I didn't get so lucky with the katana, but you'll have to make do."

"Thank you." she grinned at him her perfect smile lighting up the dank room but then coughed as she took a breath wrong and strained her lungs the wrong way, ruining the moment.

Brynjolf glazed at her as her gaze turned back to the blade and finally understood. However sickly and small, he was looking at a warrior, someone who would only be happy with a blade in her hand.

"Go on get dressed, maybe getting out of this city will help your lungs."

He left her to get ready and when he came back a note lay in her spot. He picked it up and lipped it open, it was writing in Daedric so he couldn't read it, but he had a feeling that wasn't the point.

* * *

Lirael walked through the knee high snow the blizzard had left a new layer overnight and the waggons had get to create a new path through it. The poplar trees were bare and the air crisp, she unfortunately couldn't tell whether it was helping her breathing or making it worse. She coughed often but not as hard and odd sight she must have made a spot of brown on a landscape of white. The sun shone in the clear sky and reflected off the snow and stabbed at the eyes. Lirael shoved her hands into her armpits in an attempt to retain more heat, she was endlessly thankful for the leggings Brynjolf had found snow just seemed to slip right off them. The map she had found with her dried beef showed that there were two ways to Whiterun from Riften one, going south around the Throat of the World through Helgen the other North by the river. Helgen was frequented by merchants and the safer bet she guessed if she made good time she could reach Ivarstead by nightfall. She would have to either find an alley to rest in or pick someones coin pouch for coins for a room.

The frail elf sneezed, but she was getting ahead of herself, first to get there. She grumbled as she walked north around the lake, it was so frozen that maybe she could walk straight over it. The only problem of what was the threat of it braking and falling through. That was out, though it would be so much faster. It was quiet not even birds sang, no sound but the crunching of her boots and the howl of wind.

The day pasted slowly and Lirael walked unhindered, her breathing grew laboured, her shoulders sagged. She couldn't help but smile as Ivarstead came into view, the small river side settlement drew her like a frozen moth to a flame.

"Halt!" An astonishingly accented Nordic voice called.

Lirael lurched to a stop without thinking, to tired to think or even care what the Guard wanted. She pulled her heavy gaze from the white ground and watched the Guard make is way down the side of the Gate overlook.

The blue armour Guard stopped within arms reach before her. "Who are you and what is your business in Ivarstead?"

The petti elf rolled her shoulders trying to ease the weight of her back and the sun sank behind the Throat of World. "Just passsing through." Her words where barely above a whisper.

"Not in this weather, no person travels without great need."

"Going to Whiterun." she clipped her sentence rather then stumble around strange sounds.

"Do you intend to stay the night?" The guard fingered the hilt of his sword.

"Yess." Lirael glanced at his coin pouch sitting exposed on his belt and flexed her fingers, while restrained in fur, she was confident she could pilfer a few coins.

The Guard looked her up and down, worn garbs half frozen, he grumbled. "Fine go on in."

"Thank you." Lirael passed by and reached into his pouch when they were parallel and kept walking as she removed it with a small handful of coins.

Lirael pocketed the coins. "Tayemhekemayemnehtkoht yoodtoht lyrohtrohtdoht Nehtohtcesstayemyoodtrohtnehtayemlya." She almost purred over the old sounds in her mouth, she had almost forgotten what it was like to speak her home tongue. She never dared to in Riften, there was always the chance that someone would hear and try to kill her for Daedra worship.

She trudged through the snow up to Vilemyr Inn, was she slipped through the door she would grow to find that she walked into the standard for a Skyrim Inn. Long rectangular hearth in the middle of the room; tables along the walls, a bard and chairs to the fair right, bar to the left and four rooms two on each side wall.

She walked up to the bar and the dirty Nord keeper watched her with a reproachful eye. She placed ten gold coins on the bar and pointed at the clean empty room to the left of her.

"Its yours for the night." The man grumbled and swept her coins into his palm.

"Thank you." They were the only two words in the common tongue she had mastered. Frankly she had no idea how to ask for a room for the night without reverting to Daedric, which wouldn't get her any where.

She walked into the room and pulled her heavy pack from her back and set it against the wall. Then pulled the rest of her snow gear off and pulled a dried apple and jerky from her pack, then walked back out and sat on the edge of the hearth. The hot coals glowed in the dim light as she ate her meagre dinner and relished the warmth they have off. Occasionally the inn keeper would walked over and set a fresh log or two in the fire and poke it into place with an iron stick. Lirael was tempted to just reach through and move it for him, but she didn't want to burn her clothes, or upset the Nord. Some plainly didn't like Dunmer or any one who wasn't man, mer or beast both were shunned. She shuddered remembering all the times a drunk had beaten her to a pulp because of the colour of her skin.

She eventually walked back to her room and went to sleep on a bed of straw and furs, she couldn't remember the last time she had gone to sleep warm and comfortable.

The Nord inn keeper woke to kick his Dark elf from her bed only an hour past dawn, only to find the bed she stayed in cold.

Lirael pushed herself to run in the crisp morning air, hoping that it would help her stay warm. She had felt good this morning when she woke and decided to slip away again. She joined up the snow covered road, there was less here and she could see waggon and horse tracks, running in them made making a good time much easier. She stopped only to eat, drink and cough, when she did blood tainted the pure white snow. "That is not good." she thought.

She pressed her scarf to her lips and forced herself to breath through it, it stank but it took the bite out of the air. Setting off at a walk she hoped would help her breathing, the ground started to dip back down and she passed through Helgen largely unnoticed and walked down the twisting trail to Riverwood, she nodded to the smith in passing and walked straight through the town. Excitement started to creep into her heart, if her map was right when she got around the mountain on the west side of town she would be able to see Whiterun. The ice creaked as she walked over the well worn bridge and down the road again. Pushing herself to a jog she slipped down the snow and grinned as Whiterun came into view, its stone walls shielding its people from the bitter cold as it stood proudly.

The young elf ran and slid her way down the switch back road, into the tundra plane, the wind blew and shot through her furs and she shivered violently. She picked her feet up and ran down the well packed roads up to the large golden city gates. Two very cold guards glared at the moderately armed Dunmer as she pushed open one great door just enough to slip her thin frame through.

The first thing she noticed was that the wind had stopped or weakened, it had been battering her for so long it had felt normal and now with it gone she felt as if weight had been lifted from her shoulders. The snow created drifts against the houses and was packed tight on the streets, Lirael walked with ease for the first time since leaving Riften. She could hear laughter and shouting from the Bannered Mare as she walked through the small market place and up around a sapping standing strong in the middle of the Cloud District. Smiling she climbed the last steps up to Jorrvaskr with the feeling of great accomplishment.

Pushing the ornate door out of the way she strode into the Mead all and was swiftly wrapped up in warmth of fire and the scent of the sweetest foods.

"Look here!" A tall mountain of a man bellowed loudly, "A new face in our great hall!"

"Calm down Farkas you'll scare the little thing." A Nord woman scolded the giant, she was almost as tall as the Nordic man with red shoulder length hair tied back and a hand print on her face for war paint. She wore old looking leather armour with heavy Nordic plaudrons.

"Welcome Traveller, come, sit, you look like you have journeyed a long path." The oldest man called out strongly, his hair was long and grey with a full beard and a voice that spoke of long years and a most noble mind.

Lirael dipped her head and pulled off her furs and set them beside the door, she unbuckled her Nodachi from her back and leaned it carefully against the wall. She knew better but there was no safe place for her to lie it horizontally.

The elder got up from his head seat and walked over to as she stepped down the steps to the hearth.

"Welcome young one, I am Kodlak Whitemane. What brings you to the Hall of the Companions." He set a strong hand on her shoulder in welcome.

Lirael smiled. "I came to join." she chose her words carefully for the least accent she could create.

A dark haired Nord woman barked out laughter. "Kodlak she is but a slip of a girl, her arm is weak."

"Hmm." Kodlak glazed for a long moment, taking in her dress, weapons, how very frail she was. But there was something about her, a fire that he had seem in every warrior of this hall. "Enough Njada, she has a fire in her heart if you are so worried about her arm, Vilkas go collect your shield and you will give this new blood a test."

"As you wish Kodlak." The twin of the one Lirael identified as Vilkas walked down in the halls.

Lirael smiled and slipped from under Kodlak's grip and pulled her Nodachi from the wall and with a quick twist of her wrist the long blade came smoothly free of its sheath. Lirael ran an eye over the over a meter and a half long blade, she frowned slightly, she would need to find a sharpening stone for the blade looked as if it had seen far better days. Rust clung to the hilt and the metal of the blade was nearing black with neglect, hopefully it would serve her for this one fight. With a sweep through the air she set the blade on her shoulder not unlike how one would carry a spear and walked over to the stone area to the left of the hearth that looked like it was kept clear for this very purpose.

"Awfully big blade for such a small elf." Njada taunted, "You can barely lift the thing, I can't wait for Vilkas to beat you."

The tiny Dunmer ignored the rude Nord and swept the blade back of her shoulder and fell into her first stance. She took it through a few slow controlled movements, testing her limits, slowly speeding up to the point the blade blurred in the air, though this she only maintained for a few great arcs before slowing down again to ease her lungs. As she settled back to start Vilkas walked back into the Mead hall carrying a classic Nordic blade and a heavy steel shield. Most interesting was that the Hall had grown very quiet as Lirael had practiced, Kodlack wore an interesting expression and Njada looked like she had lost all desire to taunt.

Lirael took a few wide stances steps back putting her back to the far left wall of the hall and Vilkas between her and the hearth. She pulled her blade to her chest and had to work to keep a straight face as her armour creaked at the worst moment.

Vilkas fell into his own stance and raised his shield. "Whenever you are ready elf."

Lirael nodded and swung her sword in a clear right slash, metal met metal and Vilkas shield gave an ear piecing wail as the long blade travelled over its length. Without breaking her swing she whipped the long blade up catching the edge of Vilkas shield and tearing it from his arm, sending it flying off to the side.

With a wolfish grin Vilkas made his own slash with his Sky Forge Sword and was only a little surprised with the heavy steel nodicha met him blow for blow.

Lirael sank further into her stance as they duelled, muscles slowly remember drills that her mind had long forgotten. Lirael was less then half Vilkas size and her muscles begged for relief as she kept pace with the hardened warrior. The great length of the nodicha keeping the much stronger Nord at bay. Sweat started to drip down her brow and it got harder and harder for her to breath as her lungs screamed at the abuse. Crescent swings, metal screeched against metal.

A few minutes into the battle the grin had disappeared from Vilkas face, instead replaced with a set frown. He could see the exsersion on the tiny elf's face, yet there blades kept dancing. He could get within range to strike and she sank lower into her stance and her moments grew unfamiliar. Even how she manoeuvred her blade was different, he could see an an astonishing amount of wrist work for such a large blade and she worked a great deal from her elbows, one hand for strength one for control.

He was growing tired of this engagement. With a great stride he brought both hands on his sword and slashed down with all his might as fast as he could.

CLASH.

Lirael held her blade up horizontally over her head, Vilkas blade caught on its flat. with a slit smirk Lirael powered back against him and titled her blade down, Vilkas broke away and round housed her exposed rib cage.

She hit the ground hard, air forced harshly from her lungs, eyes momentary wide in distress. Her blade bounced and clanged loudly as it hit the cut stones. Lirael laid motionless for a moment, trying to breath, she ordered her lungs to move but they remained still. She heard voices shooting but couldn't understand a word, a hand wrapped around her shoulder and she was heaved to lay upright against someone's chest. Two new hands ripped her armour off and pushed her shoulders back.

More shouting, her chest gave a jerk but couldn't find air.

Someone grabbed her head and angled it back and stroked her throat.

Someone gave a joyful shout and the feeling of warm healing magic seeped into her body.

Reality hit her like a frost giant, she grew a great wheezing breath and started to cough as she asked to much of her lungs. Blood spattered the healers face and the first hands slipped under her arms in front of her body and held her head at an upwards angle.

Something foul tasting was poured down her throat and she choked as she tried to cough and swallow at the same time, those big strong hands massaged the potion down her throat and she felt her lungs ease.

The healer poured more magic into her as she took one slow smooth breath. Slowly the world came back into focus, out of the corner of her eye she could see that the larger of the twins held her in his lap. Farkas her mind told her, letting her gaze fall forward she could see someone in the simple orange robes of a healer. To the healers left knelt Kodlak his hands were the ones on her shoulders.

"You alright now little elf?" His voice was soft, it made Lirael close her eyes and nod as best as Farkas hands allowed, he removed them after she moved her head and let them rest on her waist.

"You should have told us you had rot lung, and that you were injured."

Lirael took another deep breath. "Webohttoodtlyadoht yahkemohtyoodt hekemayemvehkekem lyrekemtayem mehtekem hefhediyagethhekemtayem iyahefhed iya hekemayemdoht?" her breath shook out.

"Athis?" Kodlak didn't even need to raise his voice.

A short, harshly figured, black haired Dunmer male pushed his way through the crowd. "She asked if you would have let her fight if she had."

Kodlak levelled his stoney gaze with hers. "We would have taken you to a healer first."

"Webhefhedayemtayem gethohtdoht webohtyoodtlyrdoht tayemhekemayemtayem hefhedayemvhk dohtohtneht? Iya hefhedayemvehk nehtoht gethohtlyrdhot." Lirael's reply was breathless as she tried again to breath.

"What good would that have done? I have no gold." Athis supplied.

"The Temple of Kynerith does not charge for healing." The healer sounded offended.

Lirael blinked for a moment confused. "Tayemekemmehtpayemlyr ohthefhed Mehtrohtayem dohtyoodtseht."

"The Temple of Mara does."

Koldak and the healer frowned clearly unhappy about this development.

"Your from Riften then?" Kodlak asked.

Lirael nodded.

"That would explain the rot lung, Dunmer are susceptible to wet and cold more then the average mer." The healer coated her in magic again looking for more injuries.

"Of course we are!" Athis snapped. "We are children of ash, a place such as Riften would be very ill for us!"

Lirael opened her mouth to speak in common but with a translator around it would be better just to speak in Daedric again rather then butchered her common. "Tayemhekemayemnehtkoht tayemyoodt hekemekemlyrekemroht, Iya ayemmeht hefhedekemlyrIyanehtgeth bedtekemtayemekemrhot nehtohtweb."

"Thank you healer I am feeling better now." Athis said.

The orange cloaked healer drew her hands away with a sharp nod was if she was satisfied with her work.

"Do you speak common little elf?" Farkas asked.

"Poor." Lirael said.

"What's your name?" Farkas rough voice filled the room.

"Lirael." the healed dunmer was careful to form each syllable in a clipped fashion like how Brynjolf would.

"Lirael." Athis rolled the word on his tongue. "Lyrrohtyahkemlyr." Athis purred in Daedric. "A good Dunmeri name. You from the Ashlands then?"

"Iya ayemmeht Yoodtrohtquamayemlyrsehthekemyoodt bedtyoodttayem mehtyoodt hefhedayemiyalyrekem dohtIyadhotnehttayem webhekemohttayem tayemoht sehttayemayem iyaneht Bedtlyrayemkoht lyryahkemtayem. Sehtoht tayemhekemyahkem ayemnehtdoht Webohtnehtdohtekemroht bedtekemhefhedohtrohtekem ayemnehtdoht sehttayemohtpayemekemdoht iyaneht webiyanehtdohthekemekemlyrmeht." The elf slipped off Farkas's lap and he was a little sad to see her go, she knelt with her hands folded in her lap. Meditative, Athis noted not surprising for an Urshilaku, they were very strict with training their warriors. "She says that she is Urshilaku but her family didn't want to stay in Blacklight, so they left and wandered before and stopped in Windhelm."

Several Companions shuddered at the thought, Windhelm had a reputation as one of the least tolerate to non Nord individuals in Skyrim.

"All that was two sentences?" Njada snarked.

Athis glared at her. "Daedric is the language of the Lords, an Eight worshipping Nord wouldn't even be able to comprehend the complexly of the tongue of true Gods."

Njada opened her mouth to snarl a reply, but Kodlak raised an arm for silence. "Continue Lirael."

"Webekemlyr iyatayem webayemseht ohtkohtayem ayemtayem hefhedrohtekemsehttayem bedttoodttayem ayem gethrohtohtpayem ohthefhed hekemohtrohtdohtseht ayemcessyoodtsehtdoht mehtiya payemekenrohtseht ohthefhed bedtekemyoodtiyahehtgeth iynpayemekemrohtekemlyr sehtpayamiyasehts." Lirael's shoulder slumped in defeat. "Ayemseht hefhedayemroht ayemseht iya nehtoht tayemhekemayem ayemroht sehttayemiyalyr iyaneht Yoodtlyrhefhedrohtiyakohtseht payemrohtiyasehtohtnehtseht."

"It was okay at first but then a group of Nords accused her parents of being Imperial spies, as far as she knows they are still in Ulfic's prisons." Athis swift spoke.

Silence filled the Hall, this was not a new story in the earlier years of the war it was common for Nords to turn in Dark Elves as spies because they would not aid against the Imperials.

The red headed Nord woman from before finally spoke up. "Then what happened?" Her voice had a hard edge, the kind that made you listen.

"Patience Aela."

Lirael opted to paraphrase. "Ran away, end in Riften."

Njada huffed. "And became a low life no doubt."

Lirael glared but didn't deny it.

"How long were you in Riften?" The healer asked.

"Sehtiyaxayah Moon turns."

"Six months." Athis corrected.

"Sixs mounths." Lirael tired.

Athis sighed.

"Can you work on that with her Athis?" Kodlak asked.

"It is my duty as a Dunmer to do so Kodlak, we are Ashlanders and we do not abandon one of our kind in need." Athis crossed his defined arms and puffed is chest out, as if Kodlak's asking was an insult.

"Thank you Athis, could you show your newest recruit where she will be resting her head."

"Of course Kodlak." He stepped off to gather her backpack and other weapons.

Lirael rose a little stiffly and nodded a thank you to Farkas and he gave a wolfish smile in return. She kicked up her nodicha and slipped it back away in its sheath, she followed Athis to her gear and reached for her snow wear.

"Leave it, it will dry better up here."

"Okay." She followed him along the wood walk way of the outer ring of the Mead Hall.

"Rule number one of learning Common Tongue, no Daedric unless you are really stuck, then I will give you the right word and you will practice it till you can speak it without accent."

"Ayemlyrwebayemseth have accsent." Lirael pulled her s.

"True you will always have an accent but not one so strong that it distorts your words. That is the end goal. Don't drag your s's it will ruin the word." Athis said with a very final tone.

"S-sorry." Lirael her sharp features distorted as she made a face trying to get around the sound.

"Better." They headed down below to the Mead hall which turned out to be as finely furnished to match the hall with three rooms down the long hall and the whelps quarters directly across from the stairs with six beds lining the walls of the long room. Four on the wall opposite the light wood for and one on either side, each had either a chest or dresser at the foot with room for one to store there personal weapons under the bed. Banners hung form the walls to ward off the cold and there were shelves on either end of the long thin rooms, filled to the edges with books. A long carpet went the length of the hall its gold middle with red strips on either ended was very inviting to Lirael, red was a colour all Dunmer identified with.

"This one is empty." Athis set her weapons on her new straw and fur bed and her backpack before it.

"Thank you." Lirael set her nodicha on the floor carefully setting its edge downward. "Uh," she frowned. "I need to payemrohtohtpayem then down."

"Prop." Athis corrected. "Right I forgot those blades are very picky, just brace then against each other and be careful when you get up in the morning. I'll as Eorlund if he can make a few brace we can put in the walls for them later."

"I need a wet, uh." she tapped the stone floor.

"Wet stone."

"Wet stone too." Lirael said as she braced her blades against each other.

"I'll ask if someone can get there hands no one, a Kajtti caravan is outside of town they probably have one."

"Thank you." Lirael set her backpack in front of her blades to keep them safe.

"Stop thanking me for things that aren't your fault come on," he gestured for her to follow. "you look like you need to gain twenty pounds of flesh before you even think about actually working."

Lirael followed averting her eyes from Athis, she was well aware she was unhealthily thin.

All of the Companions had settled back around the hearth's long tables and had returned to there dinner. Lirael slipped into the last empty chair with her back to the stairs she came from. She slowly started on a Horker steak, thoroughly crewing the tough, sweet meat. An elderly, tall, blonde Nord who's face was covered in the wrinkles of many long years of work, ladled a thick vegetable and meat stew into an empty bowl as she passed by. Her soft smile made Lirael's insides feel warm and fuzzy, she nodded her thanks again started on the hot stew.

She bit back a moan, flavors that she had forgotten existed caressed her tongue. She had to remind herself to go slow and let her stomach adjust to the new rich foods. The meal was as quiet as a meal with a bunch of hardened warriors, with a great love for mead and story telling can be. She learned that the core Companions were made up of a group called the Circle and the members where the twins Vilkas and Farkas, Aela the Huntress, Kodlak Whiteman who was the Harbinger a sort of leader but not in complete control of the Companions. The last member was a middle aged Nord called Skjor, from what Lirael could tell he was a big voice in the Circle probably next in line to be Harbinger. The Circle was in charge of the book keeping and maintenance of Jorrvaskr, they passed contracts down to the other Companions. In short they made the Companions function as a unit. Outside of the Circle there was, Athis her impromptu teacher, Njada Stonearm who got her name for her skill with a shield, Ria an Imperial that used to be the newest member of the Companions till Lirael as she was so fond of reminding her. Lastly was Torvar a mid sized brown bearded Nord male that stank of mead. There were three people in Jorrvaskr that were not Companions; Vignar Gray-Man an honorary Companion for some reason that she didn't know and his servant Brill an unremarkable Nord. Finally Tilma the Haggard it was hard to get much more out of her then she had been working with the Companions for her whole life, servant, housemaid, gossiper, Lirael guessed from her little "I know everything" thing.

Occasionally a member of the Hall would ask her something and she would do her best to reply with Athis as an intermediary, that and Tovar made fun of her accent but it gave her someone to bounce words off of.

Lirael slipped off to bed just shy of ten though the rest of the Companions still relieved and fought. For her first day at Jorrcaskr it could not have gone better.

**And so this monster begins, lucky for you lot I have the first three chapters written and are just waiting for editor approval. I thought about putting this in the crossover section but after the first two chapters this will take place on Earth so it didn't seem necessary. This is a real break from the norm so I would love to hear what people think of it.**

**In other news my story Man of Primus (which I pulled a while ago) is about to make a come back. With a boom . . . literally. It will be posted in the Avernger section and as I am in a mood, I present you with a teaser.**

Stay here, Antony." Howard Stark growled at his eighteen year old son, a disdainful frown staining his features before turning back to the black cloaked, straight faced man at his right.

"Yeah, yeah sure. Whatever." Tony crossed his arms over his chest aloofly and glanced at the lab techs that dotted many terminals and lab tables covered in a conglomerate of different technologies at different levels of development.

"My people will keep him out of trouble, Mr. Stark." Nicholas Fury assured him, turning and guiding the both of them out of the rather busy room.

"Right." Howard huffed, leaving Tony to his own devices. Never a good plan. They had only brought Tony because he was supposed to be learning his fathers 'trade'. Good load of good it was doing when the basics he was hearing was snippets of conversation between the infamous Fury, and his father. Which his personal opinion seemed to be code for 'Shut up and come with me.' Following the ever 'beloved' motto, ' Be seen and not heard.'

Tony glanced around the room, noting that the SHEILD director's 'people' were about as vigilant over Tony as Howard had ever been, before slipping off after his father. Contrary to his father's beliefs, he was not stupid. Going through just about all the tech schooling in existence in the time it took most children to finish high school was far from stupid.

Tony had always been sub par in his father's eyes. General nuisance and occasional set back to the great and powerful weapon's maker, Howard Stark. Tony scoffed. If his father was as brilliant as others always claimed to be, he'd have given Tony a more prominent role in developing more than just weapons. Not that the man seemed to care. It could very well have just been that he felt Tony could HANDLE more than the 'simple' task of a death machine. No need to give any more attention than he would to one of his many horrific creations he put his hands to work on.

Slyly, Tony slipped into a side hall as a pair of SHEILD agents walked out into the main corridor. He glanced down this new hall, an eery blue light emanated faintly from under a heavy steel door at its end. He crossed the hall and hacked the door in a matter of seconds, smirking at how absurdly simple it was. So much for one of the most highly secured defence systems in the Union.

Within was a large room with a glass observation window to one side, though there was no one behind it. Sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the room, however, was a square cube, roughly a foot squared, emanating the soft, icy blue light he had seen from beneath the door. His curiosity peeked, Tony slowly walked over and waved his hand slowly over the face of the cube, snatching it away in discomforted shock. It was unpleasantly cold to the touch.

Tony was startled as the opening of a rather large door behind the glass wall, "As I was saying Nick, the Tesserac behaves."

The eighteen year old ducked behind the thick pedestal as his fathers voice seeped into the room.

"Are we ready for the test?" Fury asked an unseen tech head.

"Yes Sir."

Tony's heart lept into his throat. The realization of just where he was hit him harder than one of his father's missiles. He didn't know what they planned to do, but if they were behind a barrier, he was willing to bet he DIDN'T want to be here.

"Fire it up." Howard said, No knowledge that his only son was in the testing chamber.

Tony lept from his position behind the pedestal before tripping over a rather stupidly placed chord on the floor, cursing as he did a rather spectacular face plant.

The air crackled around Tony in large arcs of energy, scoring the walls with light, smoky burns. His hair stood on end as one shocked him, turning his whole arm a rather painful, blistered crimson. He let out a shout of pain and heaved himself from the floor, lunging for the door only to get zapped again, leaving more painful welps over his other hand.

His eyes wide he gripped his arms and turned desperately to the glass screen that shielded his father and Fury.

Howard startled rather spectacularly as his son seemingly magically appeared from behind the Tesserac's pedestal, "Tony! Shut it down! Shut it down!"

But luck was not on Tony's side as the Tesserac stubbornly refused to listen to the bossy man. Instead it zapped the man with a similar DNA signature. Agents forced open the door, Howard hot on their heels. Tony stumbled back, subconsciously wanting to get away from his father as the Tesserac burned him again, leaving long ugly welps over his skin. In his haste, Tony's burning hand came into contact with the cube once more.

Pain raced like a wild fire over his body as it was ripped apart and a black void of stars opened over his head. The last thing he saw was his father shouting at him before he was ripped cruelly from Earth.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Ooff." Lirael's katana fell from her hands as she tumbled over the sandy training yard.

"Better little elf, but your guard is low on your left side and you always led with your right."

Lirael sat up and dusted off her arms before retrieving the wood mock katana from the ground. "Sorry." she mumbled.

Vilkus brought both hands to his mock sword. "Again." he said gruffly.

Lirael set her lip and fell back into ready position.

The first few days of her new life had mostly been filled with Vilkas and Farkus finding her weak points. It didn't take long for Farkas to work out that she was a powerful as a Sabre Cat with her nodicha, if her stamina was very lacking. Her short and one handed blade work was a completely different story.

Vilkas swept her feet from out of under her for the forth time that day and it wasn't even noon yet.

"Dead." He pointed the tip of his wooden sword at her throat.

Lirael pushed the light blade away from her with a finger and let him pull her to her feet. He had finally stopped frowning when he did that, as if her under weight form still annoyed him.

They squared off again, Tilma had seemed to make it her personal mission to fatten her up, though not that it was working, what she didn't turn into muscle was worked off in the field.

After two days of sparing with Farkas Vilkas had got a glimpse of her spine showing through her skin, the next thing she knew she was getting dragged off to the Temple AGAIN and having some potion poured down her throat. With Vilkas grumbling about how she couldn't take a fall with her bones sticking out. Now she had to have the same ghastly red potion with her breakfast everyday. But her bones weren't sticking out and she felt stronger then she had since leaving Windhelm.

Bang! Wood slammed against wood and Lirael swiftly shuffled her stance for better grounding.

Vilkas grinned that the improvement and stepped back. "Enough," he gazed up at the sky. "time for more food any way."

Lirael relaxed and forced herself to do a longer sentence. "Okay, do you want to go to the market or eat here?" she smiled reflectively as she realized the words were perfect.

Vilkas stormy deamor cleared at the well formed sentence. "No we'll eat here, you skipped out on your potion this morning."

Lirael's sharp face fell a country mile.

"Tilma told me." Vilkas said as he took their blades away and rested them against the side of the Hall.

"One would think she is trying to adopted me." she fumbled around adopted but go her meaning across.

"Wouldn't surprise me, your to naive for your own good."

Lirael pouted.

"Stop it, your not helping your case."

The petti dunmer's face flipped like a switch. "I know." she grinned silly.

The odd pair stepped into the warm all and helped themselves to a thick vegetable soup. As Companions were always coming and going from the hall and spent most of there off time sparing with each other. There was always something on the hearth to eat for any frozen individual, usually a soup or stew, or a soup so thick it might well as be a stew. Rarely a boar would be roasting on a spit or large chucks of deer. Lirael had initially found that very odd when someone would just walk up, pull out their knife and help themselves to whatever bit they fancied. Athis had to explain that it was for anyone and everyone.

She picked up her neglected potion from her usual sitting spot and plopped down beside Vilkas on the warm wood stairs. Making a face she tossed the potion down her throat and tucked into her food, the Hall was quiet, the pair were the only two souls in it. Most of the Companions were out on jobs and Tilma was below the hall cleaning.

"Where did everyone go?" Lirael asked after a few big bites.

"Most of the Circle is headed for Windhelm, there has been a frost giant sighting and the local guard aren't equipped to had it. Half of the whelps have gone to Dawnstar."

Lirael raised a brow.

"Its a small mining town pretty much dead north of here sitting on the shore of the Sea of Ghosts. Cold nasty place." Vilkas frowned deeply.

The tiny dunmer wondered if his face always returned to that state. "The others?"

"Markarth, they were asked to help with the Forsworn."

"What are Forsworn?"

"Bretons and Nords native to the Reach, would happy kill every Nord they can get there Daedra worshipping hands on." Vilkas growled out.

"That way you sent Athis with them? So he could act as a mage in a pinch?" she asked innocently.

"Yes, he's not trained but it is better then nothing when going up against fucking spell casters." Vilkas gave her a sharp look. "You should have some magic, why didn't you use it?"

Lirael blushed. "My mom wanted me to me a healer, so I was taught spells to heal others and none for myself."

"That's very odd." Vilkas grumbled.

"Not really," she chewed on a piece of venison. "Healers are taught to put others before themselves knowing magic to restore oneself can mean the difference between saving a soldier and watching them die." she poked her mushy vegetables around. "Dunmer healers are taught to be selfless and to always put the hurt first."

"How do your Healers not end up dead in the field."

The elf gave a puzzled look before understanding lite up her face. "Oh you mean Spellswords!" She giggled. "They learn all matters of healing but less then healers. Healers never get to see battle and some stay in the Temple for most of there lives."

"So how'd you end up with a love for very large blades?"

Her cheeks brightened further and she mumbled. "I would sneak out of the Temple and watch the trainess in the fields, once I got caught." she poked a lump of carrot. "I lied and said I was a trainee and the instructor put a long sword in my hand and said prove it. He set me up with a sparing partner and I got my butt handed to me." She grinned. "But I did well enough to get transferred from the temple."

"Doesn't explain your love of swords."

"I was getting there," she started counting off on her fingers "I tried daggers, short blades, swords, sabres, long blades and claymores." she readjusted her hand back to holding her bowl. "But I ended up at a nodicha because it gave me reach."

"Something you sorely lack." Vilkas interrupted.

She blew him a raspberry. "Not everyone can be six feet tall with arms as thick as tree trunks."

Vilkas made a face of mock horror. "Only a tree?"

Blushing she punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Stop it."

"Just messing with you Ly."

The poor elf was sure that her cheeks were black with blush. "Any way, a nodicha gave me reach and are much lighter then a claymore."

Vilkas laughed. "So you chickened out and went for the lighter longer of the weapons."

Lirael almost choked on her soup. "I am not a chicken!"

"Sure your not." Vilkas purred, oh how he loved messing with her, it was just to easy and fun to do.

The flustered girl inhaled the last of her soup. "I'll prove it!"

She bounced down to the hearth and scrubbed out her bowl then zipped past Vilkas to a bench under a window to the left of the double doors to the training yard reached under and pulled out a SkyForge steel claymore.

Vilkas coughed on his mead as she hefted the huge weapon up.

"Ugh, these are heaver then I remember." she muttered under her breath.

"How did you know that was there!" Vilkas's jaw fell to the floor.

She shrugged. "I saw Farkas stash it here."

Vilkas jaw worked up and down as he gazed at the tiny elf with the HUGE sword.

The stunned Nord finally found his voice again. "Uh great now put it back, Farkas is rather protective of his blades."

"No he's not," she grinned "if he was he wouldn't have dropped his last one and ran when those giant spiders came down from the ceiling in Dustman's Cairn."

"Well that was different, I don't he will ever fight spiders again. Now put that back, you look like your going fall over. You have nothing to prove elfling." He took a long draft from his tankard. "You amazed us all on day one, for someone in no shape to fight you held your own amazingly."

With a sigh she put the sword back under the bench. "You were holding back." She sat back down next to him.

"Well it wasn't a real battle, it was just a test of your skill, sure you have a long way to go but your good enough to be worth further training. Not everyone has the talent to wield a blade."

Lirael smiled. "No they don't.

The sat in comfortable silence as Vilkas finished his meal.

"So... we heading outside again?" Lirael fiddled with the fur of her boots.

Vilkas grinned wolfishly.

"Oh boy." Lirael had a feeling she was going to be purple by night fall.

* * *

Lirael groaned and flopped into her straw bed, she was so right. Most of the Companions had returned that night and Skjor asked for a demonstration of her skills. As she couldn't say no, Vilkas pulled out there real weapons and they went at it. While she still lost, she didn't lose horribly afterwards she managed to pay just enough to her surroundings to see Skjor giving her an odd look as she ran from from all the praise.

She kicked her boots off and rolled over and curled up. Tilma poked her head in and smiled, before slipping of to report to Kodlack.

"So Vilkas how has our new whelp doing?" Skjor gruffly asked.

"She learns fast, a whole language in a week!" Vilkas downed a large swallow of mead. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one." he mumbled.

"Of course she does she is Urshilaku, they are Azura's warriors." Athis barked. "They are trained from birth to serve their lady. If they are not suited for there tasks they are removed from it." he glared. "Intelligence is required."

"Calm yourself Athis, most don't know what does on behind the walls of Blacklight." Koldack defused the situation.

"Sorry Kodlack."

"We are getting off topic any way, I was going to ask if you think she is ready for her trial."

All eyes fell on Vilkas and he sighed after a long strained moment. "I think as long as its not to bad, she'd be fine for a field mission."

"A courier came in with a bandit camp that needs clearing." Skjor pulled a letter from his tunic.

Vilkas plucked the note from Skjor's old strong hands, flipped it open with a finger and read the messy scrawl. "Looks easy enough a simple bash the door down and kill anything that moves."

"Why I offered it Vilkas." Skjor sipped his mead.

Vilkas grumbled and tucked the note away. "I'll ask her in the morning."

* * *

Lirael hauled herself out of her warm bed and fell flat on her face, a heavy bundle at the side of her bed caught her foot. With a groan she picked herself up and heaved the heavy package and put it on her bed and pulled away the leather wrappings. The sight of cool steel shinnied in the low light and excitement swelled in her chest. She tore away the leather and grinned, she lifted up the heavy curiass, Steel Plate, someone had got her a set of Steel Plate armour! With practice long forgotten she dressed in the new shinning armour. It was no Bonemold but it would do, she strapped her weapons to her back and hips a little steel tanto decided to hide in her right boot. She headed up for breakfast feeling like a new woman.

Most in the Hall still slept so she took the opportunity to practice in her new armour get a feel for the weight and stretch of its leather.

Swinging her blade in perfect arcs, she found the amour had been modified to allow for maximum movement. A smile teased her lips, she knew who commissioned it now it was to much like Bonemold for it to be anyone else. With a great flourish she slid her nodicha home and grinned at Vilkas as he made his way up the stairs.

"Look what Athis commissioned for me!" She spun in a circle showing herself.

Vilkas chuckled "You look like a full shield maiden now," he walked down to the hearth and helped himself to food. "so you shall come with me on a job and test it out. There's a bandit den that needs clearing within an hours walk."

Lirael practised with her katana as Vilkas ate and they headed out as dawn's light crept over Whiterun. The only souls who saw then leave were the morning shift of guards, who called a greeting and continued on there way.

Lirael practically bounced as they headed out east over the tundra following the road that she had come in on all those days ago. Rather then following it around the mountain they climbed up into its hills and around its rocky slops till they came to a cave. Dawn shone on the land but there was no guard stationed outside.

"And this is way we come early, bandits are not early risers."

Lirael nodded sharply and pulled her katana from her hip, Vilkas pulled his great steel shield form his back and his Skyforge sword from his hip.

"After you whelp this is your Trial."

Lirael nodded again not trusting herself to speak and led her way into the cave, granite cut walls lead the way into a small cavern. Snores reached there ears and the pair made systematic work of the sleeping bandits before pressing deeper.

As they crept into the main cavern a huge statue greeted with a sneering smile. "Shit." Lirael backed back into the hall and put her arm out to stop Vilkas.

"What?" he whispered.

"Their worshippers of Sheogorath."

Vilkas raised an eye brow.

"Daedric Prince of Madness." she clarified.

"So?"

"So you really want to piss of a Daedra Lord? Last I checked getting on the bad side of one was as good as selling your soul to a notice enchanter."

"We have a contract to fill."

"I don't want to defile a shrine to the Prince of Madness, we have no clue what he would do. Unlike say Dagon would just send a Dermora, Azura would probably straight up kill us. Trying to guess what HE will do is like trying to get Farkas to fight spiders."

"Impossible."

"Exactly."

"So what do you suggest then?"

"Run away and pray that Sheogorath is in a good mood." Lirael said very seriously.

Vilkas gave her his best Skjor impression.

"Alright, alright, but if we get on Sheo's bad side its on your head." Vilkas charged into the temple with a shout.

"Sorry my Lord, next time tell your servants to be more low key."She whispered and dived into the fray stabbing Sheogoraths high priest in passing as she charged to help Vilkas.

The battle was short and bloodly, half naked, insane, Skooma addled brains didn't provide much of a challenge.

Vilkas sniffed through the temple storing away anything of value, Lirael stood nervously before Sheogorath's Shine, half expecting to hear his high bellowing voice declaring that there would be no cheese for her and then she'd be completely smitten.

After several anxiety filled minutes Vilkas led the way out.

The tiny Dunmer had never been so glad to leave a place in her short life. Though she could have sworn she heard a cackling laugh as they existed the cave.

She sprinted ahead for some needless scouting just to get farther from the cave, Vilkas laughed at her but, she had a healthy fear of the Daedra.

Whiterun bustled when they returned and they traded away rather unremarkable loot, that same cackling laugh was haunting her. Every time she was congratulated that laugh would echo in her head.

She grew increasingly edgy through her induction ceremony and awarding of a Skyforge Steel nodicha, she managed to thank Athis for her amour and he waved her off saying that he didn't want all his teaching to go to waste.

As she raised a mug to Vilkas that cackling laugh that had haunted her through the day filled the hall.

"Oh what fun this is!" The high laugh echoed through the room and all the Companions pulled their weapons out.

"Silly little mortals. Do you honesty think you could hurt the Lord of Madness?" There weapons were wretched from there hands and dumped on their left feet. The scene would have been funny for not the implications.

Gold light swirled around Lirael's body, it took her a minute to recognize the magic. NO. "I'm sorry my Lord please don't!" Lirael shouted at the top of her lungs, she had just gained a family she didn't want to be ripped from them.

"Oh no my little Chaos Bringer you and I will have fun yet. She who prayed to me before slaughtering my followers." HE laughed and laughed, that insane cackle was the last thing she heard before her world turned upside down as she was ripped from it.

**So shorter chapter, the first one and this where written together as one. My editor suggested I split it up. So this ends the Elder Scrolls section it will be 100% Transformers from here. **


	3. Chapter 3

Part Two

Chapter One

Blistering sun was the first thing Lirael noticed when she cracked her eyes open, the next was sand, she lurched up, sand, sand and more sand. "Where in Azura's name am I?" she stood up with a wobble her armour creaking loudly as if she had been still for a very long time. She took a step, tripped and was rewarded with a mouthful of sand.

"Ack, Blaa." she coughed and spat, finally resorting to using her fingers to get the sand off her tongue. "This stuff is worse then ash." she turned over and looked at a brown backpack, she would swear blue that it hadn't been there when she woke up. She coughed again and shouted. "This is a really bad joke my Lord."

"I find it rather amusing my agent of Chaos. But if you don't want it.." his laughter was underling his words, taunting, teasing.

"No I'll keep it." she lunged for the backpack and held it to her chest.

The Prince of Madness laughed.

Biting her tongue she opened the back to find all her things from the hall in it. Well that was something.

"Now I would recommend east."

The Dunmer growled and picked herself up, shouldered her backpack and dusted the sand from her armour. "I suppose not listening to you would do me no fewer favours then listening."

The Prince laughed. "Oh we will have such fun little Dunmer."

Lirael bit back an insult and started east, quickly deciding that she hated sand. Her amour was made for snow not SAND, it got EVERYWHERE oh she was sure the Lord was laughing at her. Especially after she tumbled down yet another dune. She silently cursed the Daedra in with every word she knew, eventually in an effort to stave off boredom she started trying to see how many ways she could curse him in complete sentences. Of course she didn't dare voice these increasingly creative curses, after all it wouldn't do piss him off anymore then he was already. But then a mortal cursing a Prince, he would probably just find it funny.

Eventually the familiar sent of salt stabbed at her nose, well at least the Ass wasn't lying. Sliding down the last dune with significantly more grace then the others she walked down to the water edge.

"Now what you insane lesser Daedra!" She shouted to the sky.

"Now you get to have a very bad day." Sheogorath said smugly.

"Wha?"

Something sharp pierced her neck.

"Ow!" she reached up and pulled the dart from her neck. It was a silver tube with a sharp point and a red puff on the end. "What the..." The ground rose up to meet her. "Not sand again." she thought as she blacked out.

* * *

Lirael woke groggily, more white light. "Gods I'm making a habit out of this." she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"What the!" She stared down at her body, what sick bastard had taken her armour and clothes! Oh she was going to kill them! She lurched up right and collided with glass tube. "The Fuck!" she scrambled back up hands out over the tub. "Let me out, where am I!" she shouted and banged her fist against the glass.

The door to the empty room snapped open and three men entered. One was scrawny with glasses and black hair two muscular men flanked him talking in a language that she couldn't make heads or tails off. One reminded her of a Redguard and the other Imperial.

"What do we know." Galloway asked.

"Next to nothing, Ratchet said no Cybertronians have encountered someone like her. He says her body is more dense then ours and her body is composed of different minerals. Like ones he doesn't have names for."

"Is it intelligent?"

"The Docs looking after her think so, her amour and weapons showed a high level of intelligence and they said she started speaking like a," he snapped his fingers "well they compared her to a bird of some sort for how she sounded."

Galloway stared at the Dunmer in the tube cage.

She started to feel along the sides of the tube looking for a switch.

"Webhekemayemtayem tayemhekemekem hefhedekemlyr iyaseht tayemhekemiyaseht!" Lirael shouted and banged the glass.

"How strong is that?" Galloway asked a scientist.

"Unbreakable." The man was clearly distracted by the nude elf.

Galloway walked and tapped on the glass and waved his pass card in front of her. ""You want out? You're going to have to learn to develop those communication skills."

Lirael's gaze snapped to him and she growled. Language barrier or not she could tell when someone was mocking her. She braced her forehead against the glass and brought her fist back and fired it through the glass punching Galloway in the gut. The surprise in his face was priceless she grabbed his shirt and slammed his head against the glass.

Her fingers scrambled over the console and the glass retracted she back up and fell over the other side and focused on the room for the first time.

Everything move in slow motion to her, one door, four people, circular white walls, the men where reaching for there guns. They were enough like crossbows for her to guess there purpose.

She leaped over her cage and bolted for the door, leaping over the computer then scientists had been working at and banging the door out of the way.

Her feet slapped against the concrete and eyes went wide. The flight hanger was the biggest thing she had ever seen, walk ways for humans only the sides people rushing back and forth.

"Stop her!" Lennox shouted.

Liraels new world snapped back into focus and she shot off down the long hall way. People slow to respond as she streaked by, she could see sunlight down the hall and bolted over a table of men. One grabbed her ankle as she stepped over their table. The petti Dunmer twisted and sent her other foot on a one way journey to his jaw and his head snapped to the side with the force. Once she wouldn't have been able to do that, but thanks to Athis and Vilkas while she wasn't at her prime yet. She could kick human butt, she rolled to the ground and took off again. Leaping and dodging human hands and she tore out across the sand.

"What?" Sand, sand and more sand as far as the eye could see. Where the hell was she? "Sheogorath!" she shouted. "What is this! Where am I!" she gazed back into the base wide eyed and frantic.

"A world of great Choas. Far from Nirn."  
Thundering steps reached her ears, she turned to run again and a HUGE metal servo slammed down and curled around her.

She screamed and curled up. The servo slowly curled around her and another was brought in behind her and she was gently pushed onto the servo, then slowly lifted into the air. She balled herself and prayed that it was all a bad dream.

She felt tears prick her eyes, where was she? Where was her home? What was going on? Why had the Prince sent her here? Why not just kill her and get it over with? She whipped the tears from her eyes, now was not the time for crying.

She could hear shouting through the metal hand and she was thankful she didn't have to face it right now.

A deep baritone resonated through her bones, he spoke in a calm soothing tone as if he was trying to came down the situation. She slowly relaxed and straightened out, the owner of the servo must have noticed because he removed the hand shielding her and loosened his fingers.

She was greeted by the sight of the human that she punched looking furious and with a bloody nose. The other two looking smug, tables with things she didn't have names for on them and finally a huge metal giant with a red chest and a kind face. Her gaze wander back over to the humans and noticed all her gear laid out on a table with someone holding a red light over it. With a snarl she jumped from the red giants hand and collided with the man with the red light and sent him flying she whipped her katana from the table ripping it clear of its sheath in a smooth move.

"Wooh wooh!" The shorter tanned male with a light green speckled shirt stepped forward putting himself between her and the other humans.

"What are you doing to my things!" Lirael snapped in Common tongue.

The confusing on the humans face spoke volumes, clearly they didn't understand common either. "Crap." she uttered, and backed off switching to a more passive stance. She switched her katana to her left hand and picked up her tunic up off the table and held it under her nose and coughed. It smelled wrong, she couldn't place the scent but it didn't smell like she was used to it doing. She slipped her right arm through it and forced it over her head before switch her blade back to her right and putting it the rest of the way on. Next she grabbed her pants and used the same technique to dress in them, followed by her greaves and boots. The cool metal was comforting on her ashen skin, the humans were smart enough to not make a move as she pulled on her curaiss and set her katana down slowly watching them. She pulled the rest of her gear on swiftly, her blades included that made the humans jump. Finally comfortable in her gear she relaxed and stared at the little man with glasses.

"There you go Director she was just pissed that you had taken her stuff."

"Clearly Lennox. The question is now what to do with her?" Galloway grumbled and touched his gut tenderly.

"As she is clearly not of this world, she should remain at base." Optimus said silently clearing any idea to remove her from the snotty Directors mind.

The Director pursed his lips but knew better then to go against Optimus.

"She is clearly as least as intelligent as a human or Cybertronian, let her have run of the base, over time hopefully she will pick up English." Optimus said diplomatically. "Ratchet would like to run further test on her and we can keep her out of trouble more successfully then humans."

"He has a point Director, she decked six of my men in PASSING. What can she do in a full out fight? Maybe she could even teach us."

"With her primitive weapons!" Galloway through an arm out and Lirael's hand went to her katana.

"Clearly its not all about who has the biggest gun." Lennox snapped.

Lirael quirked her head to the side, the humans were fighting again. "About her?" She wondered. The one with glasses was called Director it seemed and the tanned one Lennox. Director she chewed the word over in her mind, it was not unlike a word in common. Perhaps this wouldn't be so hard after all. She stepped up and poked the 'Director' in the shoulder. Silence fell over the crowd that had gathered to see Gallowly's head pop.

"Director." she inclined her head in a mock bow, she pointed at Lennox. "Lennox." she turned her finger to herself. "Lirael." she chose her name in common, best keep this as simple as possible.

She turned around to face Optimus, hand on her chest. "Lirael." she offered her hand.

"Optimus Prime, or simply Optimus."

"Optimus." she repeated, she grinned time to play the name game as Athis had called it. She pointed at the table and Optimus supplied the word, the pair covered everything that she could see. Before stopping.

"So what are you?" Epps asked.

Lirael turned her attention to the Redguard wanna be and cocked her head.

"Human." he pointed at his chest.

"Dunmer." Lirael supplied, as he wouldn't be asking her name.

"Well that's three questioned about her answered just by asking." Lennox said smugly, this was one in the eye for Galloway wanting to experiment on her. "She is a Dunmer, her name is Lirael and she is very intelligent. Hopefully just being around people speaking will let her pick up the language enough for her to be taught it."

* * *

(I have been reading Terry Pratchett and have lost all respect for the forth wall, so there slight change in writing style from here on in. XD Oh don't give me that face you'll love it.)

And so ended a rather tedious argument about the long term plan for the resident Dunmer. Not like any plans made would have held up against said Dunmer as chaos and insanity would start to follow her around like a good little puppy. Of course before Lirael the rather unlucky girl figured this out she would have her world turned upside down several times over.

The first time her understand of the universe was thoroughly shattered and turned on its head was when she noticed that Death was following her around. Naturally at first glance she thought he was Sithis, its best not asked how she knew of Sithis. So as she sat far from the base, but still within sight she found it rather odd when Death came up and sat beside her. His billowing black robe hung on his skeletal frame scythe in hand and a very solemn expression on his face.

The tiny elf raised a brow at the skeleton wrapped in up in what she thought was a black bed sheet, but wisely decided against asking what he wanted. If the likeness of Sithis walked up to you? Would you ask what he wanted? For all you know he would answer your soul and off your pop, you dead and dancing in the Void.

The pair sat in oddly comfortable silence till Death broke the silence.

YOU WONDER WHO I AM.

His voiced bounced around Lirael's skull in an endless loop.

"I figured asking who you were would be rather unproductive." She started into crystal blue eyes floating in there endlessly black sockets. "So what are you? Feels like a better start."

I AM AN IMMORTAL ANTHROPOMORPHIC PERSONIFICATION.

Lirael blinked twice.

I EXIST FOR AS LONG AS PEOPLE BELIEVE IN ME.

She nodded once and swallowed, this new planet was very weird. "Soo your?"

DEATH

Lirael made yet another face of spectacularly failed understanding. "Well I'm not dieing to the extent of my knowledge so why are you here." She crossed her fingers behind her back.

THE PRINCE OF MADNESS THOUGHT YOU WOULD ENJOY THE COMPANY. I HAVE FOLLOWED YOU FOR SOMETIME AS DEATH FOLLOWS YOU WHEREVER YOU GO.

"In all honestly that's not my fault." She privately wondered how an immortal anthropomorphic personification could have a voice like that.

NO IT'S NOT BUT IT FOLLOWS YOU AND YOU HAVE GROWN ACCUSUMED TO IT. I FELT IT WOULD BE KINDER TO INTRODUCE MYSELF RATHER THEN HAVE YOU QUESTION YOUR SANITY WHEN YOU START TO SEE ME IN THE FIELD.

"Why do I get the feeling that Sheo would enjoy that!" she rubbed her temples.

HE WOULD.

"At least Death is honest." Lirael half laughed. "Wait," she cocked her head at him. "why can I understand you and how can you understand me?"

MAGIC, YOU HEAR DAEDRIC I HEAR ANKH-MORPORKENIAN

"Damn, so there's no chance you could help me with the local tongue?"

NONE Death paused. I ALSO BELIEVE THAT THE PRINCE OF MADNESS WOULD BE CROSS IF I DID.

"I have a feeling that, that is going to be the story of my life."

It was funny the way someone could smile with no lips.

"You mentioned I'd be seeing you on the field?" Lirael was enjoying the conversation with someone that she could understand. Even if he was a bit morbid.

YES, YOU ARE AWARE OF ME AND WILL NOW SEE ME.

"But only when someone is about to die?" She liked where this was going.

YES, OR WHEN YOU LOOK LONELY.

Her thin lips curled up at the corner. "So if I see you, I know someone is about to meet their Maker. So in theory I could save them?"

YES.

"Would that irritate you?" she asked cautiously, not wanting to put off her new friend.

NO.

"Really?" the Dunmer's brows shot up.

YES

"Why?"

Death sighed. THERE WAS ONCE A WIZARD THAT I SAW AT LEAST FOR SIX TIMES IN THREE DAYS.

Lirael laughed, before blushing brightly and tried to turn her laughter into a cough, failed miserably and ended up fall back and giggling holding her sides.

WHAT'S SO HUMOURS.

She gave a little snort and covered her mouth. "Sorry, I just remembered one time I asked was a wizard was." she sat up still giggling. "I was in less then savoury company and one man said wizard was the extension of wise-ass." She grinned and tried really hard to rain in her giggle fit.

AH SO LIKE THE WIZARDS OF THE UNSEEN UNIVERSITY.

"How can a university be unseen?" The young Dunmer finally managed to calm down.

MAGIC, IT IS AT THE CENTRE OF ANKH-MORPORK AND IS ONE MAJOR MAGIC SOURCE IN THE DISCWORLD.

"Discworld?" pulling her knees up she rested her chin on them.

IT RESIDES ON THE BACK FOR FOUR GREAT ELPHANTS ASTRIDE A GIANT TURTLE FLOATING THROUGH SPACE.

Lirael laughed again. "A world where the Gods said to hell with the rules and decided to try something new?"

PRETTY MUCH.

"So what was this wizard like?"

RINCEWIND?

"Yeah, him, I guess."

HE WAS A THE WIZARD EQUIVENT TO ZERO AND ENDED UP PROTECTING THE EIGHT'TH SPELL IN HIS MIND AND IT FRIGHTENED ALL OVER SPELLS AWAY. HE ENDED UP ESCORTING A TOURIST FROM THE COUNTERWEIGHT CONTINENT. DURNING THIS TIME HE WAS NEARLY KILLED SEVERAL TIMES. I TOOK TO CALLING THEM NEAR RINCEWIND EXPERENCES.

"Counterweight Continent?"

IT IS A SMALL ISLAND THAT COUNTERWEIGHTS THE MAINLAND.

"How?"

IT HAS A GREAT DEAL OF GOLD.

Lirael laughed again. "Tell me more."

And he did, story after story, Death found it interesting that the little Dunmer looked at him without fear, even perhaps a bit of admiration.

Sadly it was not to last, Death had duties to attended to and Lirael had to go 'socialize' with the humans.

She wandered through the base, people had finally got used to seeing her. So she just meandered through the high halls, she had since learned the 'bots' on base were names Ratchet, Acree, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Jazz and of course Optimus. She had also learned to say away from Wheeljack if she liked her hair and do to the same with Ironhide if she didn't want to be a 'shinny ash coloured target'. Not that, that hadn't been fun... but she would rather avoid that again. Though the look on Optimus face would be worth a repeat.

"Oofff."

"Ack!"

"Damn it!"

"Thats my hair!"

"Get it cut!"

Lirael poked her head out from the wall and smirked Epps and Lennox tangled on the floor wrestling. She grinned evilly, now this was something she knew REALLY well.

She walked over to the mat and snuffed her boots off as they stared. She walked over to the tangled men pushed Epps legs apart, let Lennox scrambled off, dropped them and took a ready position.

Lennox rolled over on to his front and laughed. "I think someone wants a round Epps."

Epps rolled to his feet and came to his down boxing stance. "I think your right."

Lirael grinned.

Epps bounced on the balls of his feet, as quick as a snake Lirael shot her right foot out and aimed from Epp's head.

Twap

He blocked her and retaliated with a quick right jab.

Woosh

Lirael bent back on her left leg and snapped her leg bending back. Spring forward she blasted her shoulder into Epp's diaphragm.

He fell flat into his back and Lirael held him down with her forearm, grinning evilly.

Laughter surrounded them.

"Oh you're never living that one down, pinned in two moves by a girl a third your size." Lennox grinned.

Lirael slid off him and offered her hand.

With a smile he took it and Lirael pulled him up with little effort.

"How did you do that?" Epps pitched his voice for a question.

Lirael smiled and mimicked his stance, Epps copied Lirael reached out and pulled his arm forward. Then stepped forward and tapped her legs flexing her muscles for clarity, after a moment she pulled her shirt off and twisted and locked her abs so they could see. Then turned and put her shoulder back under Epps rids.

"Ohhh I see." Lennox said. He walked around so he could she how her shoulder blades were pulled down her back. Her whole form locked ready to spring.

"Okay that's good, you can relax now." Lennox touched her shoulder and she bunched her muscles and straighten out.

"Hey!" A female voice sounded out.

Lirael snapped her gaze over in and caught a piece of fabric flung at her.

"Stop giving them a free show!" A brunette lifted her shirt and pointed at the fabric around her breasts.

Lirael cocked her head and held the piece of fabric out taking a moment to work out where her head went vs her arms, when pulled it on with a wriggle. She giggled and jumped staring down, she grinned and gave the woman a thumbs up.

"It would be thank you." The woman said crossing her arms.

"Thank you. What is it?" Lirael gave the humans a moment to collect their jaws up from the floor.

"A bra." the woman said staring, a month the elf had been at base and all of a sudden English.

"Bra." Lirael repeated. "Need these back home."

"Since when do you speak English?" Lennox asked.

"Have been listening, apply sounds and tone, to situation, guess at words." Lirael routed her shoulders warming up.

"All that in a two weeks?" Epps pulled his shirt off and poked at his chest, he was sure he was bruising.

"Not so different from Common. Same sounds and letters, slightly different order." she bounced on her heels and raised her firsts and did a quick collection of jabs. "Easy."

"You'll have to teach us that. Whats Common?"

"Base language of homeland, only learned it four weeks ago." she raised her arms over her head and stretched again. "Daedric completely different ball game."

A few men snorted at the use of phrase.

"Wrong?" the limber elf asked Lennox.

"No, perfect."

"Spar with me?"

"Sure." Lennox said, he had a feeling he would regret this.

He did with all his heart as he kissed the mat for the fifth time in ten minutes.

"How do you do that?" He asked picking himself up again, his shoulder complaining loudly as it had nearly been pulled from its socket.

"You fight to cleanly."

"We're army, clean isn't part of our training."

Lirael shrugged and bounced again. "At home, its fight to kill, not win. Kill or be killed. Not same here?"

Lennox and Epps exchanged a look. "No its not like that here."

"Thought so. You two together?" She pointed at Epps and Lennox.

"You think you can take both of us?" Epps asked shocked.

The Dunmer grinned. "You two slower then Farkas, easy."

Lirael had a great deal of fun, spinning between the two soldiers and occasionally getting hit. But Vilkas had drilled how to take a hit into her, that and their momentary grin of success gave her the perfect opportunity to wipe it off their faces. The pair together last ten more minutes before hitting they mats and Lirael was bruised and sticky with sweat.

"Fun." Lirael panted. "You two need healing?"

"Ow." Lennox responded.

Lirael just smiled and walked over to both men laying beside each other and rested her finger tips on there chests and willed magicka into there battered forms. It was a little slower then she remembered but still there. Gold light wrapped around the pair and healed both long before her pool was exhausted.

"Better?" she asked sitting back.

Epps poked his vast chest. "How did you do that?"

"You can't?" Wow this really was an odd world.

"No one here can."

"No connection to Aetherius?" she asked using the Tamriel word.

"The what now?" The smaller man rotated his shoulders checking for injuries.

"Uhh," Lirael pursed her lips. "Immortal," she snapped her fingers. "land? Uhhh," she rubbed the back of her head. "Where souls go, then come back. Rips holes when souls travel, lets magicka travel back. You would call holes 'Stars'."

"Magicka?"

"Energy." Lirael tapped into her inner fire and let it dance over her hand. "We can chose how we release it, like a..." she trailed off and put her fire out. "Don't know. Sorry."

"It's fine, we'll work it out as we go."

Packing up so they weren't hogging the mat they separated at the washrooms and Lirael indulged in her favourite thing about this new world. The hot water on demand. She had long since had clothes given to her that she rotated through, she guessed that bra's didn't occur to guys.

She worshipped the hot water Gods and then dressed in a fresh set of army regs. She wasn't looking forward to dinner, finding food that didn't make her sick was still hit or miss.

She wander quietly into the mess and helped herself to a banana, at least the fruits seem to be safe for the most part. She sat beside Lennox and Epps and started slowly on her fruit, it was bland and mushy, but she had long since learned that you couldn't be picky. She shuddered if Tilma could see her now, she would be getting the business end of her broom upside her head. Over a week of high fat and protein food gone to waste by a two on a strange world with stranger food that made her heave at the drop of a hat. She was nearing where she had been when she had trudged up to Jorrvaskr, but this time she hadn't lost any muscle. Sure her ribs were stinking out again, but as long as no one commented on it she could work out the food problem on her own.

In hind sight taking her shirt off was probably not the smartest thing for that sparing match. Lennox was giving her and her banana a hard look, she guess malnutrition was an interstellar thing.

"Why don't you eat something more?" Lennox asked.

"Makes me throw up." Lirael finished her banana and wrinkled her nose, that was one strange plant product. "Tired your morning dry food once, threw it all up."

Lennox blinked. "Cereal?"

"Guess so." Lirael wistfully glanced at Epps steak, she had tried one once, it still made her ill.

"What do you eat at home?" Lennox enquired, poking his own food as the wheels in his head turned.

"Stews, vegetables, meats, many look and smell the same here. But they make me sick, your foods smell very salty too. Makes then very unappealing." Lirael rested her elbows on the table and her hands under her chin.

One of the others at the table perked up, an unremarkable man, but Lirael remember some of the others calling him Doc. "It could be the preservatives and other artificial additions. I had this one girl back in school that couldn't eat anything premade cause it made her sick. Her body just couldn't handle it, wasn't used to it you see, she came from way up north and got most of her food differently. Grown in her backyard rather then bought."

"So we need to start staking organic food?" Lennox raised a brow. "Galloway will love that." He said sarcasticly.

Lirael smiled, she felt moderately bad for punching Gallowly, but only moderately. No one seemed to like him, even the 'bots' as the humans called them seemed to dislike the little man. She wondered why no one just squished him, maybe they didn't want to have to worry about cleaning up the mess.

Lirael glanced around the room as the humans grew adsorbed in their talk, she was still listening just not paying as close attention.

The 'bot' she had learned named Bumblebee had just rolled into base and transformed, he rolled his shoulders and looked like he was stretching. "Interesting." she thought, "How does metal stretch?" She had watched Jorland work, but she doubted Bee's metal was red hot. With a tilt of her head she slipped off the bench and decided to explore the 'bots' side of the base. The humans avoided it whenever possible, so she had too. She didn't know why she hadn't, she just figured that there was some rule about it. She shrugged as she walked down the high halls, she was sure she was about to find out.

"That is so cool Ratchet!"

Lirael stopped and cocked her head, well that was a human voice, female, young if her ears could be trusted. Maybe there weren't any rules about coming this way.

She rounded the corner and found all the bots drifting around a smaller hanger. Ironhide and Jazz looked like they were cleaning weapons, Acree was reading a datapad and occasionally typing. Bee and Ratchet were standing by a tall dark skinned human, said human was pouring over a bike. Optimus was standing off to the side reading something she couldn't make out.

Walking silently over to the human she stopped on the other side of the bike.

"Hello Lirael." Ratchet said as she came into his sight.

"How do you fare Ratchet?" The Dunmer looked up and smiled.

"Well thank you. I was just helping Mikaela sort out her bike." He gestured to the black chopper.

Mikaela was over a dozen centimetres taller then Lirael and more filled out, she bet she could hide behind the other female if the need ever arose. She set her hand on the bike leather seat and let it trail down to the rear end.

"This is very cool." kneeling down she over the side of the bike, laying all the parts out in her mind and where they went. "What is wrong with it?"

Mikaela shrugged. "Not much we're just improving it."

"How?" the smaller girl carefully stroked the metal of the bike, simply she had gotten used to the vehicles around her talking back or complaining when they were slighted. So she was being careful with the new black bike.

"Relax this one is not Cybertronian, it can't feel." Mikaela laughed at Liraels care.

"Still has been to Oblivion and back again." Lirael pointed at the chipped paint.

"That she has," Mikaela patted the world wary bike, "but I think I can get her up and running again."

"Show me?"  
Mikaela grinned like bandit and set about explaining motor engines to someone who didn't even understand what petrol was. Though the did make some progress when Lirael drew the comparison to petrol to soul gem. But then she had to explain what a soul gem was.

"So you can literally trap someones soul?" Mikaela set the seat back on the bike and set about fastening it.

"Yes, its like your electricity, the soul is an energy that can be applied to a task. Most commonly enchanting or recharging enchantments. The Dwenmer used then to animate metal machines!" Lirael through her hands up. "They even still function, at least till someone breaks them. But doing that I have heard is very hard."

"You haven't done it?"

"Oh no, I have never been to a Dwenmer ruin. But a traveller manged to bring a tame one into a city once. They are incredibly dangerous, everyone does there best to avoid them."

"How do you catch someones soul?" Ratchet asked, he had been over viewing Mikaela's lessons, adding his two sense when he felt it was important. So more often then not.

"We have a spell for it, like my healing but in the Conjuration tree, rather then my Restoration." Lirael set her hand on her chest.

"Can you do it?" He asked.

Lirael tapped her fingers against her chest. "I can, every Dunmer has Conjuration talent, same way we can all to Destruction magic without training. It's a part of us."

"Can you show us?"

"No." Lirael said flatly.

"But you just said you could." Mikaela pointed out.

"I said that it was within my abilities not that I was going to do it." Lirael almost snared.

"Why?" Ratchet asked, he sensed there was more to it, then Lirael was letting on.

The short ash skinned elf growled. "One because I have no soul gems, I do know how to make them, but I refuse too. Two ripping someones soul from their body is a very cruel thing to do and requires their death. Three I would doom no one to the Soul Cairn, that place is one of eternal emptiness." She shuddered. "No soul work is only for Necromancers and Enchanters, not something to be done just for the hell of it."

"Sorry, didn't know it was a sore subject." Mikaela finished with the bike and leaned against it.

Lirael waved her hand dismissively. "People have always been very . . . touchy about it. Necromancy used to be illegal under the Empire, but with it done." Lirael shrugged. "Not so much, my people have always been associated with darker violent trees of magic. People often discriminate against us." The Dark Elf stared the floor and let her eyes wander out of focus as a painful memory played over then.

"Sorry." Mikaela pulled her into a hug, she stiffened for a moment before relaxing and turning the

gesture.

Lirael pulled away and whipped a tear out of the corner of her eye and forced a smile.

"What to go for a ride?" Mikaela flicked her head at the bike.

The elf couldn't help it, her face lite up like a mage light. "Okay!" she practically bounced to the bike as Mikaela swiped two helmets from the work table.

"See you two later." Ratchet stood and gathered all the left over tools up and set them away.

"Bye Ratchet!" Lirael slapped the helmet on her head and pouted as Mikaela fixed it to fit snugly, before putting her own on.

Mikaela mounted the bike and Lirael slid up behind her and wrapped her thin arms around Mikaela's waist. "See yeh Ratchet." Mikaela waved before putting the bike into gear, they rolled out of base as Mikaela explained how to stay upright. They pulled out into the main road out of base. "Ready to go a bit faster?"

Lirael nodded slowly and squeezed Mikaela slightly. This was so weird it was like a horse that was smooth and vibrated, and really, really nosily.

Mikaela geared up and they steady gained speed till the land blurred by.

Lirael tucked her face against Mikaela's neck and squeezed her eyes shut, this was a bit much. Her heart fluttered like a birds wings in her chest trying to escape.

Mikaela slowed down and called over her shoulder. "You okay?"

"Don't know," Lirael quivered and tightened her death grip on Mikaela. "ask me when we've stopped."

Mikaela chuckled as best she could for the arms wrapped tightly around her and brought the bike to a stop on the side of the road.

Lirael extracted herself from the bike and made a few wobbly steps, before falling to the ground a few paces away and ripping her helmet from her head and holding her chest as her lungs heaved.

"Hey, hey." Mikaela sat down beside her and rubbed her back slowly. "Pull your knees up and put our head between then. Big slow breaths."

The freaked out elf did as she was told without hesitating, Mikaela's kind hand going up and down her back.

Eventually she calmed down enough to sit up. "Sorry." Lirael mumbled.

Mikaela wrapped an arm around her shoulder and hugged her. "It's okay, your still new to all this. And I probably went a bit to fast for a newbie. Sorry I just love riding."

"It was fun till then." The Dunmer offered.

"Want to try again? You can sit in front this time and we'll go slower." Mikaela smiled gently.

The elf took a deep breath and nodded before picking herself up and putting her helmet back on.

Mikaela sat behind her and reached out and set her hands on Lirael's giving instructions before they slowly turned around and slowly set off down the road. Mikeala rested her hands over Lirael's only pulling way to rest them on her thighs as the elf grew more confident and they picked up more speed. No where near what Mikaela had been doing but a health seventy kilometres an hour.

Mikaela gave her more instructions and they pulled back into base and to the Autobot side.

"I see you both still have your limbs." Ratchet was mildly surprised to see Lirael driving, he'd have to hand it to the Dunmer, she learned fast.

"That we do old bot," Mikaela grinned. "though there were a few moments where I was worried."

Lirael pouted and elbowed Mikaela in the ribs, gently.

"Ow!" Mikaela fake glared at her.

She just smiled sweetly.

"Kaela!" A deep growly voice smashed through the air.

"Shit, I forgot about that." Mikaela muttered under her breath.

A relatively short but very broad mech stormed into the bay, his black armour coated with grime. "You have lessons rookie." He pointed at the dark skinned human who was trying her best to disappear.

Mikaela rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry I forgot Hide, got swept up in teaching Lirael about bikes."

Ironhide's gaze flicked down to the elf, as if he was seeing her for the first time. Which in retrospect he was as he rarely went over to the human side of the base, after looking her up and down, he just huffed. "You get let off just this once." He raised a finger. "But now we," he stressed the word. "are headed to the range, your aim still stinks."

"Can I come?" Lirael pushed the bike to its temporary home.

"Sure!" Mikaela beamed.

Ironhide just shrugged and grumbling leading the small party out to the range after a collection of varied farewells to Ratchet.

The grumpy mech lead the way out onto the training fields, a few odd humans firing off shots at targets scattered over the lanes.

After some more grumbling Mikeala had a pistol in her hand and was firing off shots as Lirael watched from an appropriate distance way, the first few shots made her jump. Eventually she picked up her own pair of ear protection and walked up gazed at the stand bye arms.

Mikaela emptied her clip and looked over. "You wanna try?"

"Sure." Lirael picked up a copy of Mikeala's pistol gingerly.

Ironhide set about explaining the mechanics of the weapon and EVENTUALLY, Lirael pulled off her first shot. The bang made her want to jump away from her own hand, but after Ironhides threat of duct tapping her to the ceiling she didn't. The shot went wide and buried itself to the dirt.

Lirael frowned and retrained the gun and tried again, she clipped the upper left corner of the human replica.

"Loosen your shoulders." Ironhide poked her shoulder.

Lirael rolled them and took another shot, the small nine millimetre piece of led ripped through the targets shoulder. Lirael grinned and pulled off a few shots in rapid succession. It was like a fast action crossbows, with more kick.

Mikaela's jaw dropped on the floor as the last shot sat proudly in the centre of the target.

Lirael widened her grin revealing her sharp canines. "I like it!"

Mikaela had a feeling she had just started something very bad.

**Updates will be slower now, this was as much as I'm comfortable with posting without my editors go for it. I know OC's aren't popular but for a story like this there is no other way to do it freely. We're in new territory now, please let me know what you think, be in review or Pm. Oh and did anyone catch my Fifth Element reference?**


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